Blasphemy in Ireland Now Punishable Under Law
Holy shit.
I thought this was a joke or someone taking a recent The Onion article seriously again. Sadly, it’s not. There are far more details about the blasphemy law than I could get into right because that would involve a lot of copying and pasting. Plus it’s 2:00AM.
Blasphemy law is silly, dangerous and unjust
It really does seem dangerous and overwhelming. Punishable by a fine up to 25,000-Euros? That’s about $35,000 USD. Imagine being hit with a fine like that because someone either had completely different religious convictions and beliefs or simply does not believe in a supernatural being.
A lot of religious folk might cheer at this law, but this really could, and will, be used against them as well as the atheist of the land. It’s not a double edged sword as there will be no real “winners” as a result of this new law except those delicious coffers receiving the cash for these hefty fines.
∙ Atheists can be prosecuted for saying that God is imaginary. That causes outrage.
∙ Pagans can be prosecuted for saying they left Christianity because God is violent and bloodthirsty, promotes genocide, and permits slavery.
∙ Christians can be prosecuted for saying that Allah is a moon god, or for drawing a picture of Mohammed, or for saying that Islam is a violent religion which breeds terrorists.
∙ Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn’t the Messiah.
Ireland Makes Blasphemy Illegal – Above bullet list lifted from here.
It does a good job condensing the crafty language for everyone to understand. This is both dangerous and ridiculous for everyone. This goes beyond insulting any freedom of speech people might have. This goes against freedom of religion and many other rights we thought we had at one point or took for granted.
I, for one, will be ten times as blasphemous as usual in support for all those atheist boys and girls panicking in Ireland because they own a book that is undoubtedly illegal to possess now. If the government looked over a curious reader’s recent books checked out from the library, would they find anything worth fining? If someone checked out the popular book “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, a warrant and a fine could be waiting for them at their front door.
I’m curious if this also means if a young man or woman is watching a blasphemous episode of South Park a little too loud with the windows open and offends their neighbors. Could the neighbors call the cops and have this person fined for watching a television show in which they have no creative attachment? This supposed hypothetical scenario does seem like a reality, sadly.
I will talk out loud to whatever imaginary supernatural being that only exists within our own collective imagination any reader might worship that this kind of law doesn’t spread.
I hope Jim Jeffries had no plans for touring Ireland any time soon with his I Swear to God material.
Faith, the Ultimate Alibi
The mind craves to know where exactly we came from. If God was such a tolerable solution, why are there still questions from well educated and civilized folk on the origins of humanity? Many call all Atheist morons and even to go as far to say that they “flock”, when isn’t that exactly what the church going groups are labeled? Many probably have had some rather lame experiences with Atheist, I have as well, but I am certain I’ve had far more unpleasantness with the fundamentalist religious type.
To say that Atheist are moronic, idiotic flocks of misinformed non-believers, is quite a stretch seeing as Atheist vary greatly in age, race, backgrounds, and location. One great fact remains that an Atheist can still live a good life. If there are no consequence after this life, why would they care? Because they know that this life is their only life and they wish not to lose it. Would so many people willingly sacrifice themselves if they had the idea of only having this one life? Why eliminate themselves in the name of man made inventions such as country, government, freedom, and religion? The thought is baffling.
I’ve been Agnostic for most of my life, but I’ve studied and tried, but God makes no sense. There is science and it has only come so far. Theories may come and go, as do religions and holy books. Just that a certain religion and book have been around for thousands of years with so many followers does not make it true. The Egyptians worshiped Set for 3,000 years. How long will it be before your religion is labeled as a myth like so many other now ancient religions?
As for Darwin, he hinted towards agnosticism, but he also said, “The safest conclusion seems to me to be that the whole subject is beyond the scope of man’s intellect; but man can do his duty.” He also said, ““The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.” This does not make an Atheist a fool to study Darwin. He understood that the question of God always ends in a stalemate.
A theory may never be able to make a dent to the very foundation of religion without absolute solid evidence, which does somewhat exist, but ignored and taken out of context. More on that in a moment. As for religion, they have books written by man while other books written by man contradict the other book written by man while all declaring themselves to be the absolute word of God. What will it take? Finding life on another planet?
The human mind has not evolved to the potent level to understand the cosmos, how it began, and where it may go. With an ever expanding universe with many exo-planets discovered annually, what will happen to religion in the minds of man when life is discovered outside of our own little planet? The chances of finding life on a planet outside of our own known solar system is similar to trying to find the only nickel in a Pacific Ocean of quarters. It is estimated there are between 1 billion and 30 billion planets in the universe.
We know of over 170 exo-planets orbiting 150 stars, with a few discovered to have the same distance to their stars as we are to our very own sun. Life existing on another planet has been proposed to be a billion to one. We have a while before we know for certain if we are truly alone. Science has only come so far, but at least science is trying to explain the origin of everything while religion stands back and waits for science to make a mistake. Religion is exactly like the Republicans right now. They are waiting for the Democrats to slip up so they have their chance to say, “We told you so! We knew they were wrong!”
Speaking of mistakes and probability, did God give us this seemingly infinite universe with planets reaching further than our most powerful telescopes can see filled with sights that our minds cannot begin to comprehend? A Nebula, which in due time may be easily explained, has absolutely no true explanation currently. Does that mean they were the direct work of God or are there other forces in this universe working together creating walls of expanding gas and dust after a red giant star reaches the end of its life and collapses? Do we even know how exactly a star dies? It’s too easy to come to the conclusion that God wanted this amazing event to happen light years from Earth instead of there being an absolute reason why.
Science has theories on such occurrences in the universe, but that is to the extent that our mind and body can explain such phenomenon. Science is trying, though. It’s a very long process of waiting generations, but science is always evolving. Religion tends to stagnate like an uncovered, unchlorinated pool while claiming that God is the reason for all the beauty, wonder, and bewilderment in the universe.
This is not acceptable and there must be explanations not currently available to our kind that adequately explain the fact that I am currently writing this using prehensile thumbs to assist with the typing all the while this text, website, and code not only exist only in 1s and 0s, but we are capable of navigating and comprehending what we are seeing and doing, even though the images, people, and technology on the web cannot truly be held or put in a box. The Digital Age has revolutionized the way Man thinks, performs daily activities, and how they spend leisure time. Especially by allowing the ability to write blogs on the idea of there being absolutely no supernatural power over man.
If there is no God, that is not as a horrifying thought as one may think. While we have no supreme being, fate, destiny, ultimate goal, or intelligent design; we still have each other. It may not sound like much, but the next time a friend falls ill, pray for them. Ask everyone to pray. Evaluate with a novice diagnosis of their condition after several days and then allow them to visit a doctor. The doctor may cure or treat the illness, which means the cure or treatment was the direct result of man, without the interference of God magically ridding the offending bacteria from the patient’s body.
Science is the reason we have a high percentage of successful childbirth. Science is the reason we can overcome an affliction with acceptable odds at times. Science is the reason everyone is able to read this article. Science is the reason I was able to write this article. Science is the only reason we now enjoy the Golden Age of our lives with great success. Life expectancy is forever on the rise now, while hundreds of years ago being short lived. Organs have been grown in laboratories in which were grown from the exact same DNA markup and cells from the patient. Eventually, science may overcome mortality, or at least, extend life expectancy over an age unimaginable in our time.
To the Atheist and most Agnostic intellectuals, it is impossible and improbable to truly disprove the existence of God. How can one diminish such a strong belief in the collective minds of the population of the planet? While the history of the most popular religions, even Scientology, are soaked in blood, it’s hard to think that we cannot shake the idea of a supernatural being in a supposed civilized world. We are genetically hard wired to believe in god through our very own genes, as there are areas and people in the world that have no god, do not know a god, nor does their language ever describe a god for many of their generations.
Without meaning to single out any religion in particular, it should be clear that I target all of the religions of the world that hold a strong belief system in a supreme being. There is no justification, regardless of flock stats and age. There is no way to prove that one book is mightier than another, regardless of age, history, and background. There are only people to hold as proof. We are all that we have in this world.





